credit: naturegrl64 (flickr)
Confessions of a book hoarder – Mark Medley muses in The National Post on a problem I’m sure many of us are familiar with:
My first impression, upon seeing so many new books in one place, is to dive into them headfirst, like Scrooge McDuck into his vault of gold bullions
The Best Alternative Histories – AbeBooks’ list of the top 25 alternative histories in literature. Very US-centered but lots of fun reading ideas.
Best Elizabeth Taylor Biographers and Books to Help You Remember the Great Elizabeth Taylor – only makes me more determined to finally read Furious Love.
David Lodge on HG Wells – HG Wells may not be one of my favourite authors but his personal life is endlessly fascinating.
Children ‘should read 50 books a year’ – why has there been so little discussion about this, at least in our little corner of the blogging world? Is everyone saving this for a thoughtful, weekend post? There are a lot of practical challenges here, obviously library closures being a major concern, but what do you think of the idea itself? I’ve read a view interesting viewpoints (both from noted authors and columnists pondering parental involvement) already but I’d love to hear more from my fellow readers.
1. Love, love your photo.
2. I hadn’t seen/heard about Michael Gove’s suggestion. I need to percolate on that one. My own children are (surprise, surprise) readers. I think it was the exposure pure and simple. Reading to them from babies, every night. The fact that I take such obvious pleasure from reading and books myself, that there are always lots of books in the house, that they see me reading, and hear me talk about books, that they get books for birthdays and Christmas, that I took them to story time at the local library and so they love to use it now. So many things contribute. If you have a parent who is not interested, all of those things pass a child by – unless they luck out and get an inspiring teacher or mentor.
That wasn’t percolating was it…?! I’ll go away and percolate now..
As always, food for thought, thank you.
I hadn’t heard about Michael Gove’s comments either. I really do think it’s all about parents reading too. My husband and myself read, so do our adult daughters and thus my ten year old grand-daughter is a reader. And seems to have inherited her mother’s (and my husband’s) natural ability to read very quickly. I would estimate she reads upwards of 100 books a year and it could easily be more. Mostly these are library books but all our houses have books and she even has her own bookshelves here in our home. Our four year old grandson is now learning to read at home before he starts school in Sept. Early days yet but he loves books too and knows all his letters and sounds and has started to make the words. I really am convinced that it’s all about home influence and if that influence is not there children will, more often than not, not bother. In my grand-daughter’s class she tells me there are three of them who read like she does. That’s not a very good percentage… and what a terrible shame it is.
Love the pic – with all the blooms popping up outside, I’ve been wanting to start bringing them in – this looks perfect.
Lest I start to preach, I’ll just echo Cath – if the parents don’t read, you aren’t going to have much luck convincing the kids.
I’m a huge reader and I read to my son every night, usually for an hour or so until he was 12. He loved being read to and it was some of our happiest time spent together. But once I stopped reading to him, he stopped reading himself, and at 16 he has no interest in books at the moment.
I say this only to point out that children are their own people. It’s too easy for parents to pat themselves on the back and say, I did this. Or alternatively to condemn themselves roundly for not doing enough. No, we can’t ‘make’ them do anything, although we can try and have some guiding influence. But it doesn’t always pan out the way we want.
I also hesitate a lot over that ‘should’ in the quotation. It would be nice if children read 50 books a year, but turning it into an obligation or a moral rule doesn’t sound sensible to me. Then it’s just another rule for parents to beat themselves up over (or their kids). I read elsewhere that the best thing about reading is the freedom – we can react to a story in our heads however we want. We’re free to pick the book up and put it down as we choose. Shame to spoil all that with injunctions and prescriptions.
Charming picture. Makes me want to trade in all my Billy bookshelves for antique painted wood with curlicues. But reality wins out.
Reading to children. I’m so happy my 3 grandsons (6, 4, 1) are surrounded with books they enjoy. Yes, even the one who just turned 1 knows what I mean by, “Bring that book over here so we can read it.”
I loooved Furious Love! Such a great book–I might have to reread it now that Elizabeth is gone.